Abdul Popal

entrepreneurin California

Abdul Popal

entrepreneurin California

In the late 1970's, an event occurred that changed the course of Abdul's life and impacts how we Americans live life today; think of the war on terror which was ignited from this event.

Abdul was a young boy when the communist invaded Afghanistan through the support of a Soviet installed government in 1980. The first on the Soviet execution list were those who had a western, pro-democratic connection, like that of his parents who graduated from American Universities.

Shortly after fleeing Afghanistan to avoid certain execution, Abdul and his family arrived in the Bay Area where early on Abdul got the entrepreneurial bug and learned to make money by taking apart broken toys and fixing them for classmates. What started with disassembly/reassembly of toys, grew to a deep passion for building and driving (sometimes racing) classics cars, which Abdul still practices today. While his passion for cars is alive and strong (currently restoring a 1963, 23-window VW Bus), Abdul sought a "less stressful" career of working at high technology startups after graduating with his MBA.

Abdul has been a fixture in Silicon Valley for over a decade, after starting work at CafePress as employee 18 when revenues were just $1M per year and helped grow the company to hundreds of millions in revenue with the company going public in March of 2012.

Abdul has held senior level financial, operating, and business development roles at Bank of America, Aramark, RPC, CafePress, 3rd Revolution and most recently at Tri-Valley Startups where he along with his co-founders, are heads down working on the next big thing, slated for release in 2016.

Abdul is married with two young daughters which he is quick to note, are his Charlie's Angels.